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Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 58: 58: After Clause 10, insert the following new Clause— ““Duty of the Homes and Communities Agency to provide allotments (1) If a need is demonstrated to the HCA that there is a demand for allotments in a borough, urban district, or parish in which it is exercising its powers under sections 5 to 7, the HCA shall provide a sufficient number of allotments, and shall let such allotments to persons resident in the borough, district or parish and desiring to take the same. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), the HCA shall consult with the council of the relevant borough, urban district or parish in order to determine whether there is a demand for allotments. (3) On a representation in writing to the HCA or the council of the relevant borough, urban district, or parish by any six registered parliamentary electors or persons who are liable to pay an amount in respect of council tax resident in the borough, urban district or parish that the circumstances of the borough, urban district or parish are such that there is demand for allotments, the council and HCA shall take such representation into consideration. (4) Where the HCA provides such allotments, it shall maintain a waiting list and manage the allotments under the same provisions as if it were a local authority.”” The noble Baroness said: This amendment concerns allotment provision and leads on from some of the discussion yesterday, which was quite historic in its perspective. We talked about the effect of the Enclosure Act. My starting point was 1649 and the Diggers, who unsuccessfully tried to permit gardening for food on common land at St George’s Hill. I do not intend to dwell on that, but it took from Gerard Winstanley’s original appeal in 1649 until 1908, when the first allotment legislation was put into effect. Of course, it is 100 years since that legislation was put into effect, so this is a landmark year. It would be encouraging if the Government marked that 100 years with some legislation that did something about the dire situation that I shall now describe. The Committee has already discussed the issue of quality of housing and housing standards but, for a lot of people, the garden that comes with the house has become incredibly small or non-existent. Of course, some basic things are more important than a garden, such as a place to sleep, cook and wash, but for many people the ability to grow their own food is something that they truly value and need. At a time when the value of allotments has been very much recognised over the past few years, the lack of allotments and the situation with the waiting list has become particularly crucial. I have just picked out a few of the things that have happened recently. ITV is asking for volunteers about people and their families enjoying allotments together, because it wants to make a TV series on that. There have been several books on allotments over the past year. There are TV programmes on allotments and there was a movie on allotments, ““Grow Your Own””, that showed what a force for social cohesion they are. The Minister’s own website asks: "““What is our policy for allotments?””," and goes on to say: "““Allotments and community gardens are valuable green spaces and community assets that can help improve people's quality of life by promoting healthy food, exercise and community interaction””." All those things are absolutely true, but what have the Government actually done to enable more provision of allotments? I suggest that the Government’s role is to produce legislative and policy frameworks that encourage that provision. There are fantastic examples throughout the country of where allotments have been providing those forms of social cohesion, as I am sure that the Minister is aware. In fact, they are laid out in the very good updated guide that the LGA published. I am glad that it published its second edition of Growing in the Community, which recommends many of the benefits of allotments. However, I shall provide the Minister with a few examples of where things have gone drastically wrong, and where the Government’s idea that allotments are protected is not true. I start with an example from Leeds, where the city council intends to build on part of its allotments this year. In fact, the report from its executive calls it not building on the allotments but, "““reconfiguration of Ingram Road allotments to create a potential development site””." One of the allotment holders got in touch with me. I gather that the Minister’s department has given approval. Reconfiguration of allotments might mean not getting rid of the whole site, but taking just a part of it—but part of the provision for Leeds has gone. It is another place with a considerable waiting list. I have lots of examples from my own area, and shall give only a few of them because of time; they hold good up and down the country. In Honiton in east Devon, the town council tried to provide some more allotments; 104 people—remember that it is a small town—are already on the waiting list. However, East Devon District Council had allocated the land for housing that the town council had hoped to use. In South Molton, another small market town, on 24 April, 22 people were on the waiting list. Perhaps that does not sound very many, but for a town of that size it is a considerable number of people. In Plymouth, the city council claims that it will develop a leisure centre with 14 facilities on its one large park, so green space will be lost. The leisure centre is admirable, but it will entail the loss of allotments. Another town just up the road from me is Barnstaple, which has a 90-strong waiting list—a list that has been forced to close because there is no chance at the moment of fulfilling it, despite vigorous community activity. Being on the waiting list just depresses those on it. It holds out the possibility that you will get an allotment, whereas the Minister knows from the questions that she answered in the Chamber on the subject that in some cases people in their 30s and 40s will be dead before they have any chance of getting one. The situation is dire. I had an interesting letter from a lady employed as the Transition Wirral allotment facilitator. She sent me some examples of how her council interprets allotment legislation, saying: "““Briefly, in Wirral there are 1600 allotments and about 400 people on waiting lists. In my local area anyone going on the waiting list is now told of a wait of about 10 years. We recently petitioned the council asking it to fulfil its statutory duty to provide allotments””." I will not read out the report because that will take more time, but in essence the director confirms that the local authorities have a duty to provide sufficient allotments and, in section 2.3.5, goes on to explain to councillors that, "““allotment authorities have room to exercise discretion about the level of provision””." My first question to the Minister is: could the Government do a little more to define a sufficient number of allotments? That has not been discussed by a Government since the Thorpe report in 1969, I think, which suggested that there should be more definition of sufficiency. To illustrate why that is important, I should say that the rate at which demand outstrips supply is the issue when it comes to whether a council is fulfilling its requirements to provide allotments. I am not being party political about this: Sheffield has 1,400 people on its list; Manchester, 850; Edinburgh, 1,150; Plymouth, 1,000; and Blyth Valley in Northumberland, 1,200. The Minister will know that the situation in London is different because inner-city London boroughs were excluded from the provision requirement. The situation in Wales has become so dire that it has provoked the National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardeners to consider taking legal action because of the position in which those on waiting lists find themselves. In an interview with the BBC the society said: "““At some stage our members are going to want us to take on an authority for not carrying out their duties and responsibilities within the legislation””." The society does not want to do that. Although it has the finance to do so, it wishes to resolve the issue in a different way. Councillor Paul Bettison chairs the environment board of the Local Government Association, which has just revised its guidance to councils on how to meet their legal responsibilities to provide allotments. However, on looking at his response, I do not feel he is addressing the situation with sufficient urgency. He said: "““There are undoubtedly areas where if the council could find land and allocate it for allotments, that would be very popular. ""But most councils would refrain from taking land on that they might later find they were unable to move on as allotments because of a trend passing by and leaving people no longer queuing up to take allotments on. Many councils don’t want to get caught out with stocking up now and then finding perhaps in ten years’ time, if they cease to be fashionable, they would have allotments that again would be causing an unnecessary drain on the public purse to maintain them and keep them safe””." If that is Councillor Bettison’s reaction to the situation—and it is guidance from the top of the LGA—I despair of councils addressing their waiting lists. He is saying, ““Don’t worry about addressing the situation””. He dismisses almost out of hand the fact that people have finally got the health message, can see food prices rising, understand that growing their own food is a sensible way of meeting their fresh food requirements and all the other reasons of which the Committee is aware. Contrast that with the comment made by Lord Bledisloe in 1925 in regard to the Allotments Act, when he said, "““where you have got a developing city with land appreciating in value as time goes on, it is obviously in the best interests of the ratepayers themselves, as well as of the allotment holders, that the local authorities should anticipate future allotment requirements, and, before land appreciates too much in value, obtain it at a reasonable figure””.—[Official Report, 29/7/25; col. 550.]" What a different and more positive response. Originally, of course, the local authorities’ housing authorities and councils’ planning authorities had the duty to provide allotments—they still do—but under the Bill the HCA is the housing and planning authority in many clauses. Should it not inherit some proper duty about the provision? I beg to move.